Boston pilgrims attend March for Life

Seminarians David Aufiero and Nicholas Twaalfhoven and Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley hold the banner for St. John’s Seminary at the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. Jan. 22. Pilot photo/Gregory L. Tracy

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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Over 200 youth and young adults from the Archdiocese of Boston were immersed in a spirit of solidarity with other like-minded peers from across the United States as they participated in the Pilgrimage for Life.

The Jan. 21 to 23 event centered around the Annual March for Life in Washington, is organized by the Office for the New Evangelization of Youth and Young Adults.

“We’re all trying to promote something we believe in,” said Tanya Garcia, 15, a parishioner at Good Shepherd Parish in Fall River, who marched with the Boston group. “If there is a whole bunch of us all together and we really believe in it, then we can get our point across.”

“I’m tiny compared to all of them,” she added. “Every person counts. If everyone thought they didn’t count, there’d be nobody. Every person matters.”

Pilgrims boarded coach buses in the early hours of the morning on Jan. 21 to depart for the nation’s capital. During the course of their two-night stay in the Washington area, pilgrims attended the opening Mass of the National Prayer Vigil for Life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on Jan. 21 in the evening, with Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, archbishop of Galveston-Houston, as the homilist. The next day, the group celebrated Mass with Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart, attended the March for Life, and concluded the day with a holy hour at St. Mary Parish in Landover Hills, Md.